Tag Archives: Visionbox Crisis Actors

Crisis actors, as described by an outfit in Denver, Colorado called Visionbox Crisis Actors, are “a new group of actors … available nationwide for active shooter drillsand mall shooting full-scale exercises” who “are trained in criminal and victim behavior, and bring intense realism to simulated mass casualty incidents in public places. The actors’ stage acting experience … enables them to ‘stay in character’ throughout an exercise, and improvise scenes of extreme stress while strictly following official exercise scenarios.”

Not only are ordinary crisis actors used in government drills and mass trauma events, some of them are amputees!

There’s an outfit called Amputees in Action, which describes itself as “a unique agency, working independently to provide … trained professional amputee actors for the film and screen industries and for emergency and military services training simulations…. Our personnel use their personal trauma experiences to enable graphic realism that is second to none, and our team of special effects (SFX) make-up, moulage and prosthetic artists use cutting edge technology to enhance and extend the appearance and function of limb-loss scenarios.”

There’s also a black woman who, immediately after the first bomb exploded, was pictured sitting on the ground next to Jeff Bauman, with no visible blood or injuries (see below).

Moments later, however, the same black woman was covered in blood and strapped into a spine board stretcher. As seen in the pic below, it’s the same black woman because she’s wearing the same red jacket.

Now, we have evidence of yet another crisis actor at the Boston Marathon Bombings.

On April 15, 2013, Max Malone was a spectator videotaping the marathon, standing right where the first bomb exploded on the sidewalk in front of a LensCrafters store at 699 Boylston St., Boston, MA.

Here’s Malone’s video. I suggest you skip to the 2:10 mark when the first bomb exploded.

Malone’s video captured several notable points of interest:

1. The video clearly shows that the store windows of LensCrafters were intact despite the explosion, in direct contrast to news accounts of the store’s windows being shattered.

2. The video clearly shows that the spectators in front of LensCrafters were not injured, with no blood on their faces or limbs.

3. Most importantly, the video captured a blonde middle-aged woman dressed in red who, after the first explosion, walked past Malone’s video camera, uninjured and unbloodied.

Below is a screenshot I took of Woman in Red at the 8:50 mark in the video. Note her short blonde hair and the upturned collar of her red jacket.

Moments later, however, Woman in Red got “into character” as a bomb victim, now wearing a black jacket over the red, as shown in news footage of her sitting dazed on the ground (10:00 mark):

And here she is being wheeled away, her face and her left hand now covered with blood (9:33 mark):

I wonder how much she got paid for her one-day crisis actor performance?

It is in the context of that skepticism that the odd behavior of Robbie Parker draws attention and raises questions. The father of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim Emilie, Parker managed to make a split-second transition from laughing and joking to putting on a grim somber face, barely able to speak without breaking down in tears. His peculiar behavior has led radical skeptics to wonder if he, like other parents of Sandy Hook child victims, may actually be hired actors. The skeptics are symptomatic of just how profound Americans’ distrust of and alienation from government has become.

Active Shooter Crisis Actors Target Mall Shootings via Visionbox

DENVER, CO, October 31, 2012 — A new group of actors is now available nationwide for active shooter drills and mall shooting full-scale exercises, announced Visionbox, Denver’s leading professional actors studio.

Visionbox Crisis Actors are trained in criminal and victim behavior, and bring intense realism to simulated mass casualty incidents in public places.

The actors’ stage acting experience, ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary American theater, enables them to “stay in character”throughout an exercise, and improvise scenes of extreme stress while strictly following official exercise scenarios.

The actors regularly rehearse scenarios involving the Incident Command System and crisis communications, and appear in interactive training films produced in both 2D and stereoscopic 3D.

Producers Jennifer McCray Rincon and John Simmons formed the group to demonstrate emerging security technologies, help first responders visualize life-saving procedures, and assist trainers in delivering superior hands-on crisis response training.

For example, with a large shopping center, the producers review all security camera views and design dramatic scenes specifically for existing camera angles, robotic camera sweeps, and manually-controlled camera moves.

The producers then work with the trainers to create a “prompt book” for the actors so that key scenario developments can be triggered throughout the mall shooting simulation, and caught on tape.

The actors can play the part of the shooters, mall employees, shoppers in the mall, shoppers who continue to arrive at the mall, media reporters and others rushing to the mall, and persons in motor vehicles around the mall.

Visionbox Crisis Actors can also play the role ofcitizens calling 911 or mall management, or posting comments on social media websites.

During the exercise, the producers use two-way radio to co-direct the Crisis Actors team from the mall dispatch center and at actors’ locations.

Within this framework, the exercise can test the mall’s monitoring and communications systems, the mall’s safety plan including lockdown and evacuation procedures, the ability of first responders and the mall to coordinate an effective response, and their joint ability to respond to the media and information posted on the Internet.

UPDATE (Jan. 3, 2013):

Thanks to a tip from FOTM reader “Em,” as of yesterday, the Crisis Actors website is no longer freely accessible. You must now “join” the organization to access the website or sign in with your Google or Yahoo! account.

I tried to join. In addition to my e-mail address and password, I was also asked “Do you have a certificate for any course completed at http://training.fema.gov?&#8221; — which suggests Crisis Actors is somehow connected to FEMA.

I answered “No” and kept getting this message “Please correctly answer “Do you have a certificate for any course completed at http://training.fema.gov?”.

Only when I answered “Yes” was I able to continue. My application to join is now “pending approval.”

Update (Jan. 7, 2013):

More evidence that Crisis Actors is strongly connected to two federal government agencies: FEMA and the Dept. of Homeland Security. Many references to both agencies are in a 73-page pdf document that Crisis Actors prepared for one of their courses on how to approach and behave on social media. The document is titled “IS-042 Social Media in Emergency Management: Course Summary and Handouts.”

You can read the document for yourself on the web or, if Crisis Actors takes down the document (which I fully anticipate they will), from Fellowship of the Minds’s library, “IS042_Social_Media”. (A big h/t to FOTM reader Nick!)